First full length for this French band that took its first steps at the end of the last decade and that, today, finally gives a substantial follow-up to the hints of excellent death doom provided with a demo and an ep released a few years ago. The Abstract Escape turns out to be a work of considerable thickness, because the group of Nancy stands out for an approach to the matter slightly different, without neglecting to enter in their compositions passages related to the most depressive gothic, this shade that goes well with themes related to psychological and existential distress. Lying Figures strikes the ability to touch remarkable evocative peaks immediately after having prepared the ground with passages more rarefied and only apparently interlocutors, all somehow adhering to the schizophrenic trend of a sick mind that tries, in vain, to re-emerge from the abysses in which it is sunk. In about 50 minutes the creature founded by the two guitarists Mehdi Rouyer and Matthieu Burgaud offers these eight tracks of excellent workmanship, demonstrating the typical mastery of those who have taken all the time necessary (as not always happens) before embarking on an adventure anything but obvious as the first step on long distance: also thanks to this The Abstract Escape shows no weaknesses, managing to evoke with the necessary continuity the feelings of isolation and abandonment that also in the cover are depicted with some effectiveness. The voice of Thibault Robardey interprets all this with the right emphasis and, although some passages may be a bit forced, the desired effect is largely achieved: all this helps to make several songs of opalescent and painful pearls, whose melodic inspiration is always in the foreground and able to illuminate the disc with sudden openings. Tormented Soul and There Was A Hole Here, It’s Gone Now are two magnificent traces for intensity, adhering to the characteristics just described, but are slightly higher, probably only for personal taste, to the rest of a tracklist that also sees the desperate Monologue Of A Sick Brain, the gothic and more rhythmic Remove The Black and the final Zero, instead of a slower sound, as other highlights of a beautiful album. The Abstract Escape, like many other similar works, should be worked with patience because it doesn’t enter the listener’s strings with particular ease, but when it does it releases those feelings that every self-respecting doom lover looks for with dutiful and tenacious patience.

2017 – Rain Without Ends Records